People want to get sick

Of course, the most spectacular event of the television season was the matches of the Russian national team at the European Football Championship. In the quarter-finals with Holland, where we won 3:1, the broadcast rating was 21.3%, and the maximum audience share reached in extra time of this match was 79.4%. The broadcast rating of the semi-final, where our team lost to Spain with a score of 0:3, was 28.5% in Moscow, and the share was 70.5%. For comparison: traditionally the highest-rated program on Russian television - Vladimir Putin's New Year's greetings - over the years has traditionally gained 60-something percent.

News and information and analytical broadcasting remains depressing, as it is not particularly diverse, demonstrating primarily loyalty to the Kremlin and the White House. This was especially evident in the parliamentary and even more presidential elections, which were covered rather one-sidedly and completely insincerely.

A pleasant exception to this is the REN TV news, in particular the evening program “24” with Mikhail Kurenny, as well as the final program of the same channel “Week” with Marianna Maksimovskaya, in which more objective and concise information was and is given than on state channels.

An alarming symptom of the season is the closure of the “Vremechko” program on TVC under the pretext of low ratings. In fact, I believe that on Russian TV there is a quiet struggle with programs where there is still live air, and therefore not entirely under the control of United Russia.

Another characteristic sign of the times is the transformation of journalists into propagandists. In particular, the host of the Rossiya channel, Konstantin Semin, caused a powerful scandal between Russia and Serbia, after he called the late Prime Minister of this country, Zoran Djindjic, a “Western puppet” who received a “deserved bullet.” It is curious that the leadership of VGTRK left the young presenter’s demarche without any consequences. From which we can conclude that this was the position of the management of the state media holding itself.

Sergey VARSHAVCHIK, independent journalist